I want more lights in my life
How many of these lights do I want?
All of them.
In my teens, what I wanted as far as stuff was concerned were video games and computers. I was absolutely and totally addicted to staring at a glowing screen that had things on it I could control with my hands. In my twenties, it was car stuff. Bought a few cars, bought a few trucks, then sold or traded them all out. On into my thirties and forties, I got into buying watches and Garmin GPSes.
I'm a few years away from 50 now, and what I'm starting to get the bug for is something a lot of middle aged men do. Home improvement.
I like lights now. A lot. Above is a lighting display from a Home Depot near me, and it just looks magical. Nice lights just make everything look more pleasant.
My favorite type of light type is indirect lighting. I'm specifically talking about a light source that points up or down where you do not see the bulb. A simple example of this is a standing lamp with a bowl on top. You don't see the bulb, the light goes straight up, hits the walls and fills the room. A smaller version of this is the bedside lamp with a fabric shade surrounding it. Again, you don't see the bulb and it's much easier on the eyes compared to an exposed bulb.
Does this mean I don't like track lights? Yes. I can't stand those things.
I am also not a fan of shop lights either. Those things are best used in work environments and garages and not in the house. Yeah, they throw a ton of light and do a very good job at it, but the light isn't easy on the eyes at all. This is understandable since they're designed for visibility before comfort.
Better lighting is a very easy quality-of-life improvement, and I'm honestly very happy there are so many lighting options to choose from. I'm also very happy that the bulbs themselves have vastly improved.
Remember CFL lamps? Awful. Remember LED lamps when they first came out? Also awful. However, LED has improved to the point where the harshness of the earlier stuff is gone. When you buy "soft white" LED bulbs, it's actually a soft white now.
The right lighting fixture with the right bulb type makes all the difference. I like this stuff. I like figuring out what works and what doesn't. This speaks to my middle aged self in a positive way.
Published 2022 Oct 25
